The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : It’s a film on Karunanidhi’s short story

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 07, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

It’s a film on Karunanidhi’s short story

Staff Reporter

Chief Minister recalls Illayaraja’s suggestion

Photo: S.S. Kumar

IN CONVERSATION: Music director Illayaraja and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi at Prasad Studio on Saturday. Producer AVM Saravanan (right) is also in the picture. —

CHENNAI: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi consented to music director Illayaraja’s request for setting up a Music University in the State.

Speaking at the launch of a film based on one of his short stories, held here on Saturday, he said such a university would be of use to the entire world, not just Tamil Nadu or India.

Speakers at the launch of the film ‘Uliyin Osai’ (The sound of the chisel) at Prasad Studios, pointed out that it was based on ‘Sarapallam Chamundi,’ a short story Mr. Karunanidhi had written several decades ago. At the Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur, only 81 of the 108 karnas or dance poses have been recorded in the sculptures.

The fictional account of why it was left incomplete forms the tale narrated in ‘Uliyin Osai’.

The film, a historical fiction, features actor Vineet as the sculptor and Sarath Babu as Rajaraja Cholan with Keerti Chawla and Akshaya as two heroines. Illavenil would be making his debut as director. Mr. Karunanidhi recalled Illayaraja suggesting decades ago that the story be made into a film.

He spoke on his previous experiences in writing historical pieces and expressed belief that ‘Ulliyin Osai’ would be made as a work of art.

Tamilans tend to forget history because they do not record it, he said. For instance, the fact that elections were held by vote in ancient Tamil Nadu can be derived from an inscription found in Uthiramerur and a Sangam-era poem comparing the disembowelment of a corpse by an eagle to the removal of palm-leaf votes from a pot.

Music director Illayaraja felicitated the Chief Minister as being both the stone and the chisel, ‘a self-made sculpture’.

The story penned by Mr. Karunanidhi is worthy of being preserved as a historical document, actor Vivek said. Producer A.V.M Saravanan recalled that the films made previously on sculpture, the Thanjavur temple and dance, most several decades old.

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